- Too much work
- Upcoming triathlon
- Family obligations
- Too much fun (really?)
- Is this the way "modern" life is?
- Is this just what happens when you have lived 50 years and you know each moment is precious and at least half of yours are behind you?
- Are these just stupid questions and like Candide, I should just conclude that questioning is fruitless and I should just work my garden?
Well, I went to my brother's funeral. I saw members of the family I have not seen in a while. Most interestingly, I saw my niece, his daughter, whom I had not seen in about 24 years. She said things that I say as it relates to one's relationship with their family. It reminded me so much of the core family issues I have seemingly successfully left behind. The bothersome bit was the realization that they were present in the next generation, hers. One of my goals, as I am sure it is for many, is to end those things I wished I had never experienced before they were experienced by the generation I directly help create (my children). I think I have done well. It hurt me to know they were still visiting my niece. Leave's me still struggling with "Am I my brother's keeper?" But, my conversations with her did remind me that despite all, I have made really good choices in my life. My brother and I started in very similar circumstances, but made very different choices. The sadness I felt at his funeral were both for his life and his death. I was sad that he had not been a better pilot of his life and that it had ended so early. These 2 things were related. I'm not sure I or others helped him enough when he needed it, but many did try. My thoughts go to his daughter and her children. After years of not knowing where they were, I am glad we are in contact now and I plan to ensure that remains so.
Alright, got the stress and the sad off my chest. Let's move on to happier topics.
Last weekend the family and I spent the weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. We went to Six Flags and the Aquarium. We had a blast as you can see in these pictures I posted on Flickr (the first group are from my camera and the second group is from Betsy's):
I also completed the Mountain Lakes Triathlon in Guntersville, AL. I met J. and Kate in the registration line; that was awesome. This was our first face-to-face greeting. I never saw them again, but the place was packed and there was lots of hustle/bustle getting ready, doing the event, and such. I'm sure we will see each other at other events and J. is sharing his training groups training meet ups with me via email. Since I typically ride on Saturday, run on Sunday, and can't get far from the house and work Monday-Friday and his group meets up on Thursday to run, and Sunday to ride, I'm not sure our schedules will line up. But, I would like to participate in group rides more than I do, so I am contemplating how to change. Maybe, I will start running with my friend's, Prince, group on Saturday. Any way, the triathlon was an absolute blast and a reminder that I need to work on my swimming! I was 35 of 35 in my age group for the swim, 9 of 35 for bike, and 13 of 35 for run. I will be working on my swimming for the next 6-9 months before I do another triathlon. But, I am hooked now. Here's some pictures from the event from my Flickr page (I almost regret the last picture!):
Podcast Listening
IT Conversations- Episode 61 - StackOverflow
- Rich Wolski - EUCALYPTUS - Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems
- Monty Widenius, Brian Aker - Open source cultures, the Sun/MySQL acquisition
- Sheeri K. Cabral - How to be a MySQL Community Superhero
- Dave Winer - Tweeting the News
- Scott Ruthfield - Jiffy: Open Source Performance Measurement and Instrumentation
- Sachin Agarwal, Garry Tan - Posting With Posterous
This sounds very interesting and I hope I find some time to check it out. I especially like the notion of uploading stuff and it just figures out what to do. For example, if you upload a group of pictures, it sets up a gallery. That's awesome. - Larry Lessig - Current Laws and the Internet
- Dion Almaer, Ben Galbraith, Scott Lemon - Browser Wars Revisited
- Cathy Marshall - Personal Digital Management
- Mark Carges - Accessible Business
A reminder that the API is the secret sauce to the modern app. - Ed Fontana - Interval of Interest and the Mobile Experience
Software Engineering Radio
This American Life
Cranky Geeks
Phedippidations
Exercise Data
   August 8, 2009: Guntersville, ALMountain Lakes Triathlon Time: 1:36:25 | ||
|---|---|---|
 |  Swim | Distance: 600 Yards Time: 19:08 |
| Transition | Time: 3:05 | |
 Cycle | Distance: 16.2 Time: 47:04 Rate: 20.65 | |
| Transition | Time: 1:55 | |
 Run | Distance: 3.1 Miles Time: 25:16 Pace: 8:09 | |
| Weather | Clear Temperature-79° Humidity-84% | |
| Route | ||
| August 7, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 3 Miles |
| Time: | 28:18 |
| Heart Rate: | 144 |
| Pace: | 9:22 |
| Weather: | Clear Temperature-83° Humidity-58% |
| August 6, 2009: Birmingham, AL YMCA Swim | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 600 Yards |
| Time: | 16:06 minutes |
| August 5, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running I found $20 along the way :) | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 6.21 Miles |
| Time: | 59:50 |
| Heart Rate: | 139 |
| Pace: | 9:38 |
| Weather: | Clear Temperature-77° Humidity-76% |
| August 4, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 3 Miles |
| Time: | 29:04 |
| Heart Rate: | 136 |
| Pace: | 9:41 |
| Weather: | Partly cloudy Temperature-76° Humidity-85% |
| YMCA, Birmingham, AL Swim | |
| Distance: | 600 Yards |
| Time: | 17:20 |
| August 3, 2009: Birmingham, AL YMCA Swim | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 600 Yards |
| Time: | 17:18 minutes |
| August 2, 2009: Atlanta, GA CNN Omni Center Running | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 13 Miles |
| Time: | 2:11:39 |
| Heart Rate: | 142 |
| Pace: | 10:07 |
| Weather: | Mostly cloudy Temperature-72° Humidity-97% |
| Route I think I ran through a drug selling operation. There were about 20 people hanging out on both sides of the street at 5:40 am. One guy ran to another guy on a bike and I swear they did that little hand exchange money for little plastic bag. They ignored me and I was pleased. | |
| August 1, 2009: Atlanta, GA CNN Omni Center Running | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 3.08 Miles |
| Time: | 27:00 |
| Heart Rate: | 145 |
| Pace: | 8:45 |
| Weather: | Mostly cloudy Temperature-72° Humidity-97% |
| Route | |
| July 30, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 3 Miles |
| Time: | 27:38 |
| Heart Rate: | 152 |
| Pace: | 9:12 |
| Weather: | Haze Temperature-82° Humidity-74% |
| July 29, 2009: San Antonio, TX Holiday Inn Express near my cousin Sherry's place Running I think I stepped on a dead skunk, but I didn't get any stink. I did slide a litte. Gross! | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 6.1 Miles |
| Time: | 57:04 |
| Heart Rate: | 150 |
| Pace: | 9:21 |
| Weather: | Overcast Temperature-81° Humidity-77% |
| Route | |
| July 28, 2009: San Antonio, TX Holiday Inn Express near my cousin Sherry's place Running | |
|---|---|
| Distance: | 3.09 Miles |
| Time: | 27:52 |
| Heart Rate: | Forgot to put on the monitor |
| Pace: | 9:01 |
| Weather: | Mostly cloudy Temperature-78° Humidity-81% |
| Route | |
